Voices is intended to be a collection of poems written and illustrated
by Mike Burr .
joy
joy ofttimes makes ugly beautiful
as repetition can make beauty tiresome
and though there were no mars or marks or slurs
upon your loveliness
yet that is how i found you changed by degrees
for though unvarnished heavens may be cloudless
and the full embodiment of beauty without fault
yet so the purple days of wrath and bluster
are themselves a thrill
and to be within that storm is seminal
for there growls understanding in her lightning days
as she hurls her spears of self protection at all
and beyond there is tranquility
which after the storm is itself beyond beauty
girls know these things
often they can feel the lies inside a man
and so when we met again
at your sisters party
you knew that i was shocked
i found you changed
for not only was there a layer
of bourgeois fat upon your long nose
and tory ethics on your rather clumsy limbs
but your thin waisted tenure of truculence
and its insights were all gone
had you a stroke within that once perceptive and acerbic skull ?
your vision clouded to injustices
for you seemed so utterly uncaring
totally without charity of mind or the garnish of humanity
in fact you had become the father that abused you !
do you repeat his words at night
and upon that mantra do devils fly away ?
for that night i saw no joy upon you
no gloriole
just repression
like dusty brooms squashed into a cupboard